Keita SHINOGAYA

日本教育心理学会

日本教育心理学会

the Japanese Association of Educational Psychology

日本教育心理学会

日本教育心理学会

日本教育心理学会

日本教育心理学会

The present study examined effects of an intervention on how to generate questions during preparation for learning, in which participants were encouraged to answer the questions that they had generated, in the context of the learners' beliefs about learning. Junior high school students (N = 87) participated in the study, which was conducted for 5 days in experimental history classes. The students were assigned to 1 of the following groups: (a) generating questions freely during preparation for learning, (b) receiving an intervention on how to generate questions during preparation for learning, and (c) receiving an intervention on how to generate questions, in which they were encouraged to answer those questions. The results showed that the intervention on how to generate questions directed learners who thought that rote memorization was more important than understanding to generate more questions about the relations between facts. That intervention also directed these learners' attention during the lectures to information relating to the questions. In addition, answering the questions that they had generated during preparation increased learners' integration of information during the lectures, and therefore enhanced their understanding of the contents of the lectures.

Because it is often not possible to understand someone's explanation by listening to it only one time, it is generally helpful, in order to deepen one's understanding, to prepare for an explanation and to review relevant materials.  Effective learning may consist of pre- and post-learning phases, in addition to the actual receipt of the new material.  From that viewpoint, learning can be considered to be the continuum of those 3 phases.  From the perspective of these phases of learning, previous studies of learning strategies can be divided into the following types : (a) studies in which use of learning strategies was examined regardless of learning phase, that is, the learning phase was not specified, (b) studies in which the phase was specified, and (c) studies that showed the effect of one phase on another.  The present paper reviews the published literature in this area, concluding that the previous studies provided insufficient information on the relations between learning phases.  Prospects for future research on learning strategies were discussed, and the academic and practical significance of this work was described.

Although preparation seems to be effective for meaningful learning, previous research has indicated that effects of preparation are moderated by learners' beliefs about learning.  Preparation such as reading a textbook before a lecture is not effective for those who think of learning as memorizing facts.  The present study examined the effectiveness of a method of preparation that directs learners to meaningful learning in a 5-day program of learning about history.  Junior high school students (N=53) were assigned to either an experimental group, in which participants answered questions about causal relations in history that were presented to them and judged their confidence in their answers, or a control group, in which participants were only presented with the questions during their preparation.  The results indicated that the participants in the experimental group had higher scores on a test that asked about causal relations in history.

東京大学教育学研究科附属学校教育高度化専攻センター

The present study examined relations between learning motives and strategies used in preparation and during lectures on learning English. Factor analysis of the data from a pilot study conducted to develop a questionnaire about strategies in preparation and during lectures identified 4 factors relating to strategies in preparation: "looking up", "conjecturing meanings", "reviewing previous texts", and "help seeking", and 3 factors relating to strategies during lectures: "grasping the main points", "note-taking", and "passive listening". In the main study, Japanese high school students (N=1,148) completed a questionnaire composed of items about learning motives and strategies used in preparation and during lectures. Path analysis revealed a relation between learning motives and strategies used in both preparation and during lectures, and a relation between preparation strategies and strategies during lectures. These results suggest that there is a direct relation between preparation strategies and strategies during lectures, so that teaching students preparation strategies, as well as intervening with respect to learning motives, might be useful for fostering effective strategies during lectures.